Reference no: EM133344808
Questions: Marketing in a business is everything, it is how people decide what they buy. Lots of great companies have thrived not because their product is better or because their product is less expensive, it is because they did a better job at marketing. How does a company make good marketing? What makes the customers buy?
Seth Godin explains the idea of spreading ideas greatly in his ted talk in 2003. One of the things that he talks about is an office chair, how a company chose to reinvent what it meant to buy a chair. In the pass the chair was viewed as an office supply and that was that. Now a chair company that has sold over a billion of a specific chair changed the idea of the consumer's mindset by changing the idea that the company bought it for you to have a status symbol by having that chair. (Godin, n.d.) Apple did the same thing with their product, Apple's CEO Tim Cook was asked why their products are still very expensive and replied that having an Apple product is a symbol of status. (IPhone, iPad Are Status Symbols: Research, 2018) Simon Sinek once said he spoke with an Apple executive and said to him "Microsoft's version of the Ipod is so much better than yours" In which the executive replied "I have no doubt" This shows how different companies operate, Apple operate to become a better version of themselves and Microsoft wants to beat Apple. (5 Fundamentals of Leadership - Leadership Development | Simon Sinek, 2022)
Mr. Godin talks about how to make a product spread, and one of the points he highly pushes is being remarkable. In the Ted Talk, Seth shows different types of marketing used by companies and how certain companies spend millions of dollars on advertising and still fail to sell. He also shows how certain companies make their product different and sell to the customers who want to listen and in hope they will tell their friends about it and generate more sales for the company. Seth talks about how his father has a picture frame on his desk that changes photos, his father loves it and every person that asks about it he tells them the whole story of why he has it and most oftenly that person goes and buys one for themselves. That is what the best type of marketing is. The consumer is passionate about the product and tells his friends or anyone that asks about it, which results in more sales. (Godin, n.d.)
To wrap up, Godin says that when you want a product to be successful, there are a few rules. First there is no limit to designing, you need to design the product for your needs and it does not matter if it looks like the average product in the industrie. Another is never to be safe, meaning making average products for average people will not sell, as said earlier Apple makes products to make the customer feel like he or she has a status not make you feel like the average person. (Godin, n.d.)
2. Promotion is almost always used to get people to try a new product or to get nonusers to test an existing product. Meeting consumer needs and getting customers to purchase your product or service is a highly complex process. As Godin discussed, the riskiest thing you can do these days is to be safe with your products because people are looking for something remarkable, "something worth making a remark about" (Godin, 2003). Moreover, in any profit-oriented firm, the desired action is for the consumer to buy the promoted item.
Godin made many excellent points throughout his talk, emphasizing the importance of meeting customer needs. Moreover, this can be difficult as consumers' wants and needs constantly change, often making it difficult to identify target markets and how to best market your product in a remarkable way. Godin used the example of a new DVD being the weekly top seller. Customers want what is new and exciting and will often follow what they notice is popular or desired amongst other individuals. In this specific scenario, a new DVD comes out each week, making it "new and fresh," making people want to buy it. This makes it difficult for an individual creating a new DVD to determine what will be successful and desirable because there are no trends in the content of these DVDs; it is just that they are fresh and unique. Therefore, the most beneficial way for businesses to determine how they can meet customer needs is by constantly striving to create products that catch people's attention and are risky, new and different.
3. There were two major concepts that were discussed in this Ted Talk. First, it was about figuring out how to spread your ideas to consumers. You can come up with an idea but if nobody is interested, the idea will not go any where. As Godin stated, "Someone figured out how to touch people in a way that they were expecting." The truth of the matter is consumers have way too many choices to chose from in every industry, but they have way less time. The end result is consumers ignore what they don't want. This is where Godin dives into the importance of turning these ideas into something remarkable. Essentially what this means is the idea needs to stand out in order to avoid being ignored by the consumer.
This ties in directly with a business prioritizing meeting the needs of customers. Meeting customer needs is crucial for any business looking to retain and attract new customers. A business needs to stand out to be noticed and in order to do so, they need to come up with ideas that are remarkable. Additionally, they need to figure out the best way to get the message out to consumers to obtain the consumers' interest. A business can make a product but if this product is not spread to the consumers, it can easily slip into their "ignore' file. Prioritizing customers needs is the only way for a business to stay afloat and to grow.